Understanding Hypermedia is an intelligent and lavishly
illustrated tour de (electromotive) force. Equally well-suited
to a reference library or a coffee table, this book
effectively summarizes the entire domain of interactive
digital multimedia in 160 or so oversize color pages. For an
old-style, two-dimensional, paper-based book limited to just
graphics and text, it does one heck of a job of viscerally -
even virtually - evoking the products, platforms, and programs
that it describes and predicts.

The book's two British authors broadly define "hypermedia" as
"interactive programmes in which information is stored in a
number of different media and organized so that it can be
retrieved and presented in a variety of ways that amplify
meaning for the user."

The book itself begins with a historical review of hypermedia,
including an innovative "chronofile" charting the development
of the main forms of media over the last 200 years or so, and
a number of nicely illustrated vignettes on such hypermedia
luminaries as Vannevar Bush, Douglas Engelbart, Ted Nelson,
and Alan Kay. Following a brief sociological interlude (from
McLuhan to William Gibson) is a technical discussion of the
components of hypermedia, and then a reasonably detailed
discussion of programming and design. The book finishes up
with a robust survey of existing products and platforms. For
those with professional interests in hypermedia, exposure to a
number of European products may prove especially valuable.

Digital convergence fosters obsolescence. But even as
Understanding Hypermedia grows out-of-date, its exemplary
design, utility as a reference volume, and reasonable cost
will long make it a book worth having. In short, this is a
beautiful, informative, and thought-provoking work; when we
get to the point where the presentation power of a book like
this can be matched or surpassed by a PDA or even a
sub-notebook, then the age of hypermedia will have truly
arrived.